The list is here on The Resurgence. (H/T Caffeinated Thoughts)
Here’s the best one from his list, in my opinion:
7. Embarrassment
Sometimes it’s just embarrassment, because being a Christian does not get you cool points anywhere. This was my big thing as a non-Christian. All the Christians would come to me and they’d be like, “Okay, you need to give your life to Christ.” And I’m like, “I don’t want to join the team, man. The Ned Flanders society. I do not want to join the team.” And it was always the kids with the bumper stickers and the t-shirts and the permagrins and the parted hair and the wristbands, and they’re like, “We love Jesus! We love him, we love him.” I was like, “Aaaargh! Seriously, is there another team that he has? Maybe wearing black, you know? Could I join that team?” It was just embarrassing. “I love Jesus.” You know how weird it is to get converted in college and your philosophy class, when they’re like, “How many of you are Christians?” “Oh, here we go.” You know. History class. “Yeah, I love Jesus.” Sociology class. “I love Jesus.” Women’s studies class. “Oh yeah, I love Jesus.” You know? You’re just a piñata for your whole undergrad degree. It’s embarrassing. And then every time any Christian says or does anything stupid, myself included—I am not beyond this capacity—it’s like, “You Christians.” You’re like, “There are billions of us! Just because one duffed it doesn’t mean we’re all doing it.”
It’s embarrassing. Do you think it was embarrassing for Naaman to go down to the river? “Hi, I’m the mighty man, leper, help.” It’s kind of embarrassing. For those in Nazareth, it’s like, “You’re the bad guys.” “Really? That’s kind of embarrassing, because we took a vote. We thought we were the good guys.” Some of you just need to be humiliated for Christ.
This is the reason I see the most often in the university and at work. People don’t want to be thought of as stupid, ignorant or different. It’s PRIDE. They want to compare themselves to others and think they are better. And they want others to think they are better than them.
The best reason of all isn’t even on his list. People want to pursue their own interests in this life and they don’t want to be encumbered with the demands of a relationship that forces them to do some things to make God happy. They want to work 100% on making themselves happy.
That’s the number one reason why people DON’T look into these issues to see if Christianity is true. They are afraid that it will be true and that they will have to dedicate some portion of their time to serving God and behaving themselves. I do it too. We all do. And it’s particularly hard to include God in your decision making when you aren’t getting your way.
What does G.K. Chesteron say?
“The problem with Christianity isn’t that it has been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and left untried.”
Exactly.
I’ll be picking up the Mark Driscoll series on sex and marriage as soon as things cool down at work. I’m working on 3 projects and it’s just too much to do!
WINTERY KNIGHT 
I was recently accused by a friend of mine who I had been sharing my arguments with that I was “narrow-minded” to other possibilities. She said because I was so tightly bound to my beliefs that I was unable to accept alternative explanations for spirituality, and that everything I hear I run through the “filter of my views” and find unacceptable.
I had to laugh because it was simply not true. When I supported my claims with science, she questioned the objectivity of science, calling it corrupt or that its scope was too limited to make accurate observations about the world around us. When I supported my claims with the historic claims of scripture, then scripture was grossly metaphorical and could have been misinterpreted, or the new testament scholars were heavily invested and only trying to prove something they had a lot of stock in (I mentioned Agnostic scholar Ehrman as well, and was greeted with a silent response). When I supported my claims with deductive logic, the laws of logic were called into question. When mathematics were used, mathematical laws were called into question. Ultimately I concluded that she was the one who was narrow-minded, mistrusting of the sciences and basic beliefs that we all live our lives around and take for granted every day.
I find it ironic that Christians seem to be the most open-minded about the truth of the reality we live in. I am TOTALLY open to the possibility of alternative explanations, IF they are logically grounded in reason and supported by evidence. If Christianity is not at the heart of the reality we live in, I’d love to know, because I’d have to seriously make up for lost time! Everyone seems to be interested in a world view that works for them, not a world view that corresponds to the ACTUAL WORLD.
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This comment reflects my own views and experiences talking to people about religion exactly. May people are not interested in conforming their desires to the truth, they are interested in conforming truth to their desires.
It’s gotten to the point where they are willing to take other people’s money to escape the expensive consequences of their own choices, too. They think that they aren’t responsible for the costs they incur. Any choice is as good as any other – someone else will bail them out.
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I reread this post too, and the whole thing about “the perma-grins, and the t-shirts and bumper stickers” was EXACTLY what I dealt with growing up too and it made me sick. The kids that go to youth group and are waving their hands in the air, and the constant charisma and smiles. I remember trying to do that once or twice during songs at a youth group or something and thinking to myself “Why am I waving my hands in the air? This isn’t me.” I thought maybe I wasn’t as authentic a believer as the kids that were so “connected to the spirit” to be able to do that freely. Eventually I just concluded that God knows what I’m thinking and knows my heart and it doesn’t matter if I wear Metallica t-shirts and stand with my hands in my pockets while everyone waves theirs around, what matters is where my heart is, and that I serve him in ways that I know how, like hitting drums and (more recently) talking to people about arguments and evidence.
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I teach the youth at our church and I see this going on. There is this idea that the kids who are serious about Christianity are weird. I think part of the cause of this weirdness is that the kids who are really serious often come from more legalistic and restrictive families. The teenagers then equate Christianity with rules that prevent them from having fun. It’s a shame because I really started having a lot more fun when I became a Christian as an adult. What I thought was fun in my pre-Christian days turned out to be childish and shallow.
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